Shortly after the President signed an executive order threatening federal funds to “sanctuary cities,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti released a statement not backing down on the city’s commitment to protecting all of its residents, even its undocumented ones. Mayor Lee of San Francisco and other Bay Area leaders made similar declarations.

So far, California’s people and elected leaders are talking the talk. But the threat of withholding federal funds to governments that refuse to actively support the president’s positions on immigration is designed to weaken those bonds over time.

It was only two days ago that Garcetti thundered, “Splitting up families and cutting funding to any city — especially Los Angeles, where 40 percent of the nation’s goods enter the U.S. at our port, and more than 80 million passengers traveled through our airport last year — puts the personal safety and economic health of our entire nation at risk.” But just yesterday another statement from the Mayor’s Office celebrated a $30 million federal “Promise Neighborhood Grant” for educational and community-based services to help low-income children and families.

What happens if the federal government withholds that grant until the LAPD agrees to engage in deportation activities? How about if Trump threatens to undermine the city’s Olympic 2024 bid? Or when it threatens to withhold funding for the Purple Line extension?

Similarly, the federal government has many obligations to California–the state hopes to secure billions more for California High Speed Rail, for example. Garcetti, Lee, Brown and their successors will be tested. There are manylegalopinionsfromaroundthe country stating that Trump’s executive order is more bluster than substance, but even so, funding for crucial projects could be held up for years as the courts work things out. Even then, given the makeup of the Supreme Court, legal precedents can change.

The idea of holding federal dollars hostage over disagreements on immigration enforcement is, at best, a plan to divide residents from their leaders and citizens from new immigrants.

The battle over the EPA and Climate Change is off to a less-fierce start, but it could turn into a major battle over the right of states to regulate the environment within their borders. The target would likely be California’s decades-old fuel-efficiency standards or the more recent “clean car” standards. The federal government has rarely challenged California’s laws, but Brown is still gearing up for a fight.

So when it comes to being the beachhead for resistance against scary changes to our national laws on Climate Change and Immigration, so far California is holding to its promises.

Only one side here is armed. The Feds can stride into any community at any time and do their business. Trump can setup as many TSA checkpoints as he wants, wherever he wants.

More importantly, the Congress has 48 months to modify the law as they see fit. This includes repealing Hart-Cellar, enacting a national voter ID, or even changing the requirements to vote (such as filing income taxes). All the protesting in the world can’t change that, and amounts to nothing more than screaming into the wind.

Like many Californians, I travel regularly between Los Angeles and San Francisco, often taking an early morning flight. The crack-of-dawn wake up, the airport traffic, and the security pat-downs and delays are exhausting. Wouldn’t it be nicer just to crawl into bed in L.A. the night before and wake up in the Bay Area? During […]

If the Europeans can tunnel under the English Channel, the Tehachapis are clearly within our means. Photo: Wikimedia Commons. The California High-Speed Rail Authority says it will shift gears by building the first operational section of the bullet train from the Central Valley to San Jose rather than going to Burbank first, as initially planned. […]

U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx was in Los Angeles this morning to announce $1.6 billion in federal funds for Metro to complete the second phase extending the Purple Line subway to Century City.